Roller Coaster
by Prunella7
Summary: Fang has come back after leaving the flock-and Max-brokenhearted. But will Max let him rejoin their family? Will she forgive and forget? Or has he finally gone too far? Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

Oh. My. God. He was _here_. All I could do for a few seconds was look at him in complete shock, memories coming back to me. The submarine, where I had kissed him in front of everyone, where I had realized he was my one and only. Where I realized that I could never love anyone else, not even someone who had been _made_ for me.

Our first date, eating ice cream and then being shot at by M-Geeks.

The first time he'd ever kissed me, in a cave, while we were out doing recon, looking for a place to settle down.

When I had thought I was turning into an Eraser, and he had come in and kissed me on the forehead, taking away all my fears instantly.

The beach, where he had been hurt badly by Ari, and I had thought he was about to die, and _I_ had kissed _him._

Fang. It still hurt; the pain and heartbreak of when he had left me. Me and the flock.

For a moment, I let all of these emotions show on my face, letting him see how much pain he had put me through. And then my poker face went up, and I shut him out again.

And for a moment, he let _his_ emotions show through, letting me see how sorry he was. But then his stone wall went up, ensuring that I had been the only person able to see that brief moment of emotion.

He had come back, and he wanted to rejoin the flock. He had left his _new_ 'flock' behind. He had said he'd made a mistake; that he should never have left, never should have split up the flock again. But I read between the lines. He was saying that he never should have left _me _especially. He was saying he was sorry, that he knew it wouldn't be easy, but he wanted us-me- to trust him again. Like it used to be.

But now he wanted back in, after practically breaking all our hearts, most of all mine. I had loved him. Worse than that, I _still _loved him. And for one of the few times in my life, I honestly had no clue what to do.

"_He means it," _Angel's voice cut into my thoughts. Turning my head, I looked down at the seven year old telepath. "_He knows he's made a mistake, and now he wants to try and fix it," _she went on, her blue eyes seeming to stare straight into my heart. "_He knows none of us, least of all you, will ever trust him the same way again, but he still wants to try. He knows he'll have to earn our trust, that it won't come readily. But he means it Max. And…he still loves you too. _

I sent a thought back to Angel. _"I know sweetheart." _ I didn't need a seven-year-old mind reader to tell me all of that. Besides what he'd done, Fang was still my best friend in the whole world, and I knew him better than I knew myself. I was the only person in the world who could read him like a book. And sadly, he could say the same for me. I knew that everything he was saying was coming straight from the heart, that he meant every word. Now it was up to me.

But what should I do? Somehow I knew that the Voice wasn't going to chime in on this particular situation. And I knew that the flock would leave it up to me. I was the leader; I was the one who made the decision. I turned away from Angel to look at the rest of the flock. I could see that all of them were torn as well. And I could also see that they really wanted Fang back.

Truth be told, I wanted him back too. But how did I know that he wouldn't break my heart again? Know that he wouldn't break _all_ our hearts again? He had already left _twice._ But third times a charm right?

I suddenly remembered something I'd once quoted to Total. (off a t-shirt of course, 'cause this is_ my_ life we're talking about here right?) It went: 'If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.' Well, Fang had come back. The only problem was, this was the second time he had come back. Think they make a t-shirt for that? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So. Back to reality here, which, by the way, totally sucks at the moment. What the heck do I freakin' _do_?

So, I quickly made a list of Pros and Cons in my head:

Pros:

Everyone else wants him back too, even if they won't admit it.

The flock would be complete again.

His special camo skills come in handy from time to time.

I love him.

I love him.

I love him.

He loves me too.

Cons:

He might leave _again _and break all of our hearts. _Again._

Notice which list is longer. Ok, decision time.

I looked at my flock again, and saw their hopeful expressions. Then I turned back to Fang. He hides his emotions so well from the rest of the world, but not from me. I could see that he was a little hopeful too, but I could also see that he was trying not to get his hopes up.

He looked straight into my eyes, waiting for my verdict. I sent him a question, and of course, he understood immediately.

This was our silent conversation:

"_How do I know you won't do it again?"_

"_You don't. You just have to trust me."_

"_Right, like that's gonna be easy."_

"_Max, I know-"_

"_I know you know." _ I paused for a minute. "_It wasn't just me you hurt, Fang. You hurt the flock."_

"_I know. And I'm sorry."_

I paused again, then took a deep breath, not believing what I was about to do. "_One more chance Fang. If you blow it, that's it." _His eyes widened almost imperceptibly. But I wasn't done yet. "_But Fang, this doesn't mean that anything is changed between _us._ The fact that you left hasn't changed. If you want _my_ trust back, you're gonna have to work for it, long and hard."_

"_I know." _

I looked back at the flock, then back at Fang, then back to the flock. I nodded, and tapped the back of Iggy's hand, giving the sign for 'yes'." All of their eyes widened, hardly daring to believe it. They all looked at me, and then turned to look at Fang. Gazzy was first. He ran forward, and hugged Fang hard around the middle, barely keeping back tears of happiness. Then Iggy went up, and clapped Fang on the shoulder. But then he gave up being the man, and hugged Fang hard too. Next was Angel, smiling big, giving Fang an even bigger hug. Nudge was last, a bit more tentative than the rest. She looked back at me, and when I nodded, she smiled and hugged Fang too.

But I didn't join in the hug fest. My heart was…well the best way to describe it was 'roller coaster'. One second, I'd be so happy that Fang was back, that he was part of the flock again, and the next second my heart would plummet again, remembering those weeks spent in bed, crying over him, acting like a big baby. Over a _boy_.

Fang was looking at me, part of him hoping I'd hug him too, but the other part, the bigger part, knew that I wouldn't. I just gave him a nod, then turned away, feeling hot tears spring to my eyes. Forcing myself not to run and scream like a banshee, I went back down the hall of my mom's house, turned into my room, and flung myself down onto the bed, balling into my pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Not much to say here. I just wanted to give a shout out to ****XloveXconquersXallX****, who made this story a million times better. **

**As always, reviews are much appreciated, and btw, Maximum Ride is not mine. Max belongs to the fabulous James Patterson. I only claim to own this story plot. Enjoy!**

Fang had been back with the flock for almost a month now. But if you know anything about me and the flock, it's that a lot can happen in a month. Anything from a pizza bomb, to being 'asked' (aka: forced) to be a walking, talking, flying commercial spokesperson for the latest and greatest evil scientist.

But surprisingly, nothing like that had happened. Which is probably a new record for us.

I wasn't sure what to do with Fang. We weren't being outright hostile to each other, but there was none of the old trust between us either. We simply…acknowledged one another. I could tell that he wanted more than just nods to each other in the hallway, wanted to talk to me, but…well all of the same doubts, or more accurately, one specific doubt, was still there.

The rest of the flock seemed to be getting on fine with Fang, just like old times. And I wasn't sure what to feel about that. I mean, it definitely wasn't the kind of pain and betrayal I'd felt when they'd kicked me out of the flock, right after Dylan had appeared. But it wasn't a walk in the park either. It hurt that they seemed to be able to forgive and forget things so easily, and I couldn't.

So, to keep myself occupied, and _not_ on Fang, I helped my mom around the house. Cooking had always been Iggy's thing, so I tended to stay away from the kitchen. But I did know a thing or two about keeping a house up and running. Granted, our old house in Colorado had been a run-down mess. But when it came time for the monthly laundry day, I was always the one stuck doing it all. And with my mom's instruction, I learned how to properly mop, vacuum, dust, load the dishwasher, and all kinds of other 'useful' household chores. Yeah right. Like that would help me in a fight to the death.

But I know what you're thinking. _Max. Doing house work. You're kidding right? _Sadly, no, I am not kidding. Because really, it was either that, or sit around moping all day. Now, you might say that moping isn't such a bad thing, and is definitely better than chores. But moping about a certain dark, tall, hot, flying bird-kid? Chores were starting to look a whole lot better.

But of course, this _is_ my life we're talking about. So of course, the nice, orderly, cleaning maid routine didn't last long.

I'd never been good at keeping track of the date, being on the run for months at a time and all. So I really had no idea what date or even day it was. All I knew was that it was sometime in early October, and that it was a weekday, since Ella was at school and Mom was at the vet.

I'd just passed by the living room, and had seen the entire flock (Fang included) sitting there, watching TV. As if nothing had ever happened. As if Fang had never left. All of a sudden, a wave of emotions literally took my breath away. I was mad that the rest of my family was forgiving Fang completely, mad that Fang had ever left in the first place, heartbroken remembering it, and all of a sudden I felt the ridiculous urge to cry. Call me crazy. But over all of those emotions, even over the anger, I felt…jealous. There I said it. I, Maximum Ride, was jealous that the rest of the flock had Fang, and I didn't.

I needed to get out of that house. Now.

So I dropped the laundry basket I was holding by the front door, grabbed my jacket, and ran outside. Running across the yard, I took off, and pushed my wings down hard. When I was finally up high enough, I banked to my left, circling over the woods around the house. I remembered staggering through those woods, shot and bleeding, knowing that Fang and Nudge must have been worried sick.

Just another bad memory in a life of nightmares.

As I completed my circle around the woods, I saw a dark figure flying towards me. I nearly groaned out load. He must have heard me take off. This was really the last thing I needed right now.

But then I noticed that Fang wasn't aiming for me. He was aiming slightly towards my left, and over my shoulder. And he was streaking towards his goal as fast as lightning.

"Max!" I didn't need any more of a warning. I swung around in midair, and at first I was so shocked by what I saw, I couldn't move. But then I felt Fang zip by me, aiming straight for the Eraser that had been about to break my neck.

I didn't process, I just reacted. There was maybe twenty of the flying Erasers in all; Fang and I could take them. While we were fighting, it seemed just like old times. Fighting with everything we had, watching each other's backs, knowing we could trust the other person with our lives. It felt good.

That is, until I heard Fang cry out in pain.

I whipped around immediately, and saw Fang clutching his side. The Eraser flying next to him held a bloody knife in one hand. And to my horror, I watched, powerless, as it sank into Fang again.

Bloodlust made more adrenaline pump into my veins, and I saw red. Then I was flying towards the Eraser, kicking the big hunting knife out of its hand. It looked confused and shocked for a moment, before my next kick caught it in the windpipe. He went down like a rock.

Somehow Fang managed to keep flying, and we finished off the rest of the Erasers quickly. As soon as he saw the last one drop to the ground a hundred feet below, Fang lost altitude and landed rather clumsily in a clearing of the wood, about a half mile from the house.

Trying not to cry out, he lowered himself to the ground, pressing his hands on the wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. The first stab hadn't been serious, not too deep, and not hitting anywhere close to a vital artery. The second had hit him in the upper stomach, and might have punctured a lung.

Trying not to cry, I took off my jacket as fast as I could, and started tearing it into strips for bandages. Suddenly, I had a flash back to this same kind of situation, except that time, we had been on a beach. And that time I had kissed Fang.

Pushing the thought out of my head, I quickly but gently removed his hands from one of the wounds, and pushed a pad of bandages into it instead. He reached down and, rather weakly, picked up another one, and pushed it into the other knife wound.

The wounds seemed to take forever to stop bleeding, but eventually it stopped enough that Fang could prop himself up on a nearby boulder. And of course, this too brought back a memory, the time out in the dessert, beneath the night sky. Kissing Fang.

Again I pushed the painful memory away. _Stop thinking about that kind of thing Max!_ I mentally scolded myself once again. Why was I having so many flashbacks today?

Getting my cool back, I looked up at Fang, suddenly curious. "How did you get hit?" Fang was the next best fighter in the flock, after me. How had that Eraser managed to hit him? Was it just a fluke?

Fang turned those gorgeous, obsidian eyes towards me. Again I mentally scolded myself for thinking such things.

"It would have hit you," Fang said, bringing me out of my mental lecture.

"What?"

"The knife," he explained. "It would have hit you." Then I got it. Fang had seen the Eraser draw the knife, and at the last second, he must have thrown himself in its path. To stop it from hitting me.

Looking back into his eyes was a mistake. For probably the first time ever, Fang's face was completely unguarded. Anyone could have looked at it and known exactly what he was thinking. But what I saw was for me alone.

I saw everything. Regret. Self-Loathing. Anger. Frustration. Hope. And love. In that one look, I knew. I knew I could trust him again. He would never leave me again, never put me through that again. Never put _himself_ through that again. He loved me, and he would do anything to save me, protect me. He would die for me, and I knew I would die for him.

I had Fang back.

I couldn't help it anymore. Being careful of his wounds, I leaned down and kissed him, full on the lips.

Nothing had ever felt so right in my life.

-End-


End file.
